Bonhams Tasting & Preview of 1926 The Macallan "Adami" and "Sir Peter Blake" Labels (Tasted #389)

As many of you would have heard, Bonhams Hong Kong this week are auctioning two incredibly rare bottles of 60yo Macallan - the "Adami" and "Sir Peter Blake" Labels, released in 1986 (distilled in 1926) as a series of just 12 bottles each.

Suffice to say, with the same whiskies recently having sold in Dubai for $1.2m USD, we should be seeing some frenzied bidding come auction time this Friday.

 

To celebrate, Bonhams HK held a brief media tasting last week, showcasing some of the rare bottles in the upcoming auction (including the incredibly rare Karuizawas below), and tasting a well-selected variety of Scottish and Japanese whiskies, modern and vintage.

No stranger to the world of fine whisky and wine, Daniel Lam (Bonhams' whisky and wine specialist) selected 5 bottles for the tasting, covering 2 countries, 4 decades and both IB and OB varieties, namely:

• Yamazaki Limited Edition 2015
• Macallan 7 Year Oold (bottled 1990s)
• Macallan 18 year old (1996-2014)
• Bowmore 12 Year Old "dumpy" (bottled 1980s)
• Silent Stills Single Cask Port Ellen (1979-2002)

Bowmore 12 year old - 1980s "Dumpy" bottling (43% ABV, 12yo, Islay, Scotland, No longer available)

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Colour: Vibrant gold

Nose: Those beautiful tropical fruits that old Bowmores are so well-known for. Paw-Paw, rockmelon, some pineapple. Beautiful.

Palate: Slightly thin, and with more smoke than I remember having tried this once before, but still very tropical. Mostly bananas and some grapefruit.

Finish: Long, with a fruity smoke to the end. You know those disposable fruit-flavoured inhalers/shisha sticks? Imagine a tropical fruit one of those, and you get the idea.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 90/100. I really enjoyed my first "Dumpy" and still do today. It's not a super complex whisky, but it is super delicious, and a style of Bowmore I do feel may be coming back (which is a very good thing). This was the crowd favourite too.

As a special treat, Daniel pulled out two Macallan 30yo "Blue Label" bottles, to show the difference between a fake and a real bottle. Can you spot the fake?

(It's the one on the left).

Bonhams "FINE & RARE WINE AND WHISKY" auction is being held this Friday, 3pm HKT in Hong Kong. Follow us on Instagram Stories and Facebook from 7pm for updates.

Cheers,
Martin.